Images

A helicopter with a boom that contains sensitive equipment for conducting airborne geophysical surveys.

The short video is of a post laser ablation crater using a nanosecond 193nm laser ablation system of a glass slide using a 210 micron spot diameter and 250 shots.  It shows a flat bottom crater indicative of a homogenized laser beam, though the measured diameter of the crater appears to be 25 microns smaller the diameter set.  The 3D crater image was creat

USGS scientist Todd Hoefen makes spectral measurements with a field portable spectrometer at a remote playa in Black Rock Desert, NV. These measurements are used to calibrate and validate data collected by imaging spectrometers (hyperspectral imagers) from aircraft and spacecraft.

Laser ablation sport sizes: 65 µm, 35 µm, 10 µm, 5 µm, and 3 µm. The resolution approaches 3 micron resolution for sulfur isotope ratios measurements in sulfides.

Historic Bayhorse mining district millsite in foreground to thick dolostone cliffs of disputed age--either Lower Ordovician or Neoproterozoic, a difference in interpretations of about 100 million years ago. The Bayhorse Mining district was one of the longest-running silver and lead producers in Idaho.

Pre-historic Nez Perce trail from the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon to the Great Plains to hunt bison. Ponderosa pine shows scars from the harvesting of cambium as a food source on those trips.

Multi Collector ICP Mass Spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) plasma shield upgrade between models NP2 to NP3 (Nu Instruments).

Survey area for low-flying helicopter soon to be visible in six Montana counties, including Helena, the Elkhorn Mountains, Bull Mountain and the Tobacco Root Mountains.

Helicopter conducting low-level flights. Image courtesy Sander Geophysics Ltd.

Geologists in the field at Pennington Mountain. The orange instrument is a portable gamma spectrometer. University of Maine-Presque Isle professor Chunzeng Wang (the lead author) is in front, Preston Bass is carrying the meter.

A low-flying helicopter towing a geophysical device collects scientific data on groundwater and geology. Information collected during these surveys can help with studying critical mineral resources, natural hazards and groundwater potential.

A helicopter rigged with an airborne geophysical survey collecting equipment. Information collected during these surveys can help with studying critical mineral resources, natural hazards and groundwater potential. A cow is here too.

Alaska Science Center geologist Doug Kreiner and University of Alaska, Fairbanks professor Sean Regan look at igneous textures in granitic rocks hosting gold at the Pogo gold mine with Pogo exploration geologists.

Alaska Science Center geologist Doug Kreiner and University of Alaska, Fairbanks professor Sean Regan discuss the district-scale geology with the chief exploration geologist at Pogo Mine. This is a new collaborative study with USGS, UAF and Pogo Mine, to collaborate on unraveling the genesis of Pogo, an important producer of gold in Alaska with critical mi

Exposure of breccia marking trace of normal fault. Clasts of country rock include Eocene granite dike materials and thus provide an age for the fault as Eocene or younger.

Bokan Mountain, Alaska.

Figure 1. Photographs of commercial, expanded vermiculite ore from the four major historical sources: Libby, Montana; Palabora, South Africa; Louisa, Virginia; and Enoree, South Carolina. Scale of the rightmost image in each set is the same as the left image unless otherwise labeled.

Monazite grains with rare earth elements lanthenum, cerium and neodinium are associated with zirconium, pyrite and potassium feldspar. Mineral identification performed by a combination of scanning of electron microscopy (SEM) and electron microprobe.

USGS scientist David Fey walking through the Eureka Graben in the Silverton caldera complex.

Layered deposit of unconsolidated heavy mineral sands along the shores of Folly Beach, South Carolina.

Intensely altered propylitic rocks (red and yellow) in the Red Mountain mining district, overprinting the regional, propylitically altered igneous rocks (grayish-green), peaks at top of image. View to west.